


On Babies

by soupypictures



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medical, Delivering a baby on a bus, Fluff, M/M, larrie-free content, not a larrie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 11:11:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7889203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soupypictures/pseuds/soupypictures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis wants to adopt, but Harry sees sick kids every day and can't bear the thought of going through that as a parent. That is, until he's delivering a stranger's child on public transportation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Babies

**Author's Note:**

> Man, there should be so many fics of Harry as a pediatrician or delivering babies that I get sick of them but ... there aren't many? Or any at all? This is a quick thing I whipped up today instead of doing what I should have been doing. I hope you enjoy my first foray into fic in this fandom.

Harry misses his regular bus by two minutes, late getting out of the hospital when a surgery he’d been assisting takes two hours longer than it should have. He’s missed his dinner with Louis, something he’d planned as phase one of getting Louis to forgive him for his putting the brakes on their plan to adopt. And surgeries like tonight’s ... it only makes him firmer in his stance. His heart hurts for these _other_ people’s children. How could he possibly put Louis in a position to feel that?

The next bus arrives and he trudges on. In his rush to unsuccessfully catch his regular bus he’d skipped changing into civilian clothes. Harry scans his card and notes that there aren’t many passengers. He nods at an elderly woman sitting in a handicapped seat, and passes a teenaged boy with his headphones blocking out the world. He sits across from a very pregnant woman who’s wincing and holding her belly. Her presence is both salt in a wound -- this is exactly what Louis wants and Harry won’t let him have -- and a soothing salve. New life, so close to fruition. Harry has always had a soft spot for pregnant women and new mothers. He can’t help but be sappy.

She looks up at him and he gives her his best smile. She attempts a smile back but grimaces and clutches at her belly. She jerks her head up and stares at him with wide eyes. “Are you a doctor?” she gasps.

“I’m a nurse --” and she pulls her dress to her knees, exposing the darkening fabric of the bus set. “Oh my.”

“My water broke,” she says unnecessarily. “Oh my god. I can’t --”

Her next groan spurs Harry into movement. “Okay okay. You’re just fine. Breathe, love. Breathe like you’ve been taught. Is this your first delivery?” She nods her head. “What shall I call you?”

“Sarah,” she says between regulated breaths. 

“Alright, Sarah. My name is Harry. Is there anyone I should call for you?”

“My -- my husband, but he’s overseas, I don’t --” and this contraction seems stronger than the last, if her anguished moan is any measure. 

Sarah reaches out to him and he takes her hands in his, shouting at the bus driver to turn back ‘round and get to the hospital. He takes off his jacket and sacrifices it on the floor of the bus. He helps Sarah to the floor and gets her on her back. He repeats that he’s a nurse and says he needs to check her out and she pulls up her dress and reaches down to shove at her panties. The teenager looks up from his phone just then and shouts in surprise. Harry ignores him in favor of trying to remember everything he’s ever learned about childbirth. He grabs for his bag and pulls out his phone and some hand sanitizer.

“Who are you calling?” Sarah asks in between contractions.

“The hospital, to let them know we’re coming. I’ll get someone on the line to talk us through this --” he looks up when he hears sirens followed shortly by the bus driver cursing up a storm. “What is it?” Harry yells. 

“There’s an accident up the road! I can’t turn around here!”

Harry turns back to Sarah, phone still ringing and pressed to his ear. He knows he can’t show panic to her, so he hangs up and hits his first speed dial. “Alright love, it’s just us. We’re going to deliver your little bundle of joy.”

_“Harry?”_

“Louis, I’m on my way home and I’ve got Sarah here and she’s having her baby.”

_“Who’s Sarah?”_

“Just met her on the bus. We’re stuck here, there’s an accident up the way and we can’t get to the hospital. Couldn’t get A and E to pick up and you’ve got six younger siblings.”

_“Should have called me mum, Harry!”_

“She’s in France! Remember?”

Louis groans and Sarah has another contraction, screaming and clutching at Harry’s hand. _“Jesus, Harry. Only you.”_

“Please talk us through this. I’m putting you on speaker.”

And after that, it goes fast. Harry disinfects his hands and peeks under Sarah’s dress again, alarmed when he sees the baby’s head. The elderly woman walks back to help, breathing with Sarah and telling her when to push. The teenaged boy looks on in a mix of horror and fascination, but Harry hears him on his phone to emergency services, looking out the window to describe where they are. 

Harry is just easing the crying newborn onto her mother’s chest when the paramedics board the bus. One of them accidentally kicks his phone, Louis still on the line, and the teen picks it up, takes over handling the call while Harry updates the paramedics on Sarah’s status. Sarah cries and refuses to let go of his hand as they load her onto a stretcher and they busy themselves with checking the vitals of the new baby.

The elderly woman -- Mary, she’d told Sarah to call her, Mary -- reaches up and dabs at his cheeks with her handkerchief. He hadn’t realized he was crying.

\---

It’s another two hours before he’s home. He’d gone back to the hospital with Sarah and cleaned up there. He’d gotten to hold the newborn for a whole fifteen minutes while doctors checked out Sarah to make sure she was healthy. Sarah had told him to take a picture of all of them and she e-mailed it to her husband. When he called her Harry took his leave, calling a cab.

Louis is waiting up for him and when Harry sees him, he bursts into tears. 

“Oh, love. Come here.”

They sit together on the couch and Harry tells him about the hospital, holding tiny Anne Marie in his arms. “I was the first to hold her, before even her mother,” Harry whispers. “Here, look at her,” and he shows Louis the picture on his phone.

“She’s beautiful, Haz.”

“I’m so sorry, Louis. I didn’t -- I understand now. Before, I could just see everything that can go wrong and I didn’t want that for you. But Sarah -- Sarah had this birth plan, she said, and they were going to induce in three days so her husband could be there and that didn’t happen. She had her baby on a bus. With me. And they’re fine. They’re perfect.”

“Harry --”

“I get it now, Louis.”

Louis hazards a smile. “Oh?”

Harry nods. “I want that moment with you.”

“I’m not going to be birthing any babies anytime soon--”

“You know what I mean!”

Louis bites his lip. “Do you promise? Just this morning --”

“I promise.”

\---

Sarah sends Harry updates on Anne Marie’s progress, and when she’s a year old Harry sends back a picture of Louis holding their own baby girl, swaddled in a yellow blanket and bawling. _She’s perfect,_ Harry texts, and Sarah agrees.


End file.
